Maho

Thank you all for the responses, and apologies as my description wasnt very clear. I'm quite a newb so dont exactly know what I dont know. I have a ZWO guide camera and a 50mm guide scope. I plan on using a canon DSLR to take my subs. I do plan on using the laptop for everyday use as well, so getting ASIAir is just going to push costs up, which I'm trying to minimise. So my understanding is that the mount, in conjunction with my guide camera will allow my to take longer subs. Do people also control their DSLR via their laptop as well? If so, then would I need 3 USB ports. i.e., one controlling the guide camera, one connected to the mount and one connected to my DSLR? Or, does my guide camera connect to my mount and my mount connects to my laptop? Thanks for the link to the Lynx Astro cable, makes a lot more sense now.

Thanks for the response Ratley. I guess I'm just confused how I can use my laptop with a USB cable, as mount only has these ports. Does my potential new laptop have to have an ethernet type port? Lots of laptops these days don't have these anymore. The hand controller is similar, and has these ports

Afternoon all I'm going to be getting a new laptop for controlling my mount and take longer subs. I have a CEM25P goto mount. However I'm a bit confused what laptop would be suitable, what cables I will need etc. I'm thinking of this https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4338819?clickSR=slp:term:acer swift 3:26:48:2 This is a pic of my mount and all the ports available. Any help/guidance would be appreciated.

Hello all, I've never been to astrocamp or a star party and I'm pretty much still learning about astronomy and astrophotography. I dont actually have a campervan. Do people just come in their cars and sleep in it? I dont fancy investing in tent, sleeping bags etc.

Accommodation to do astrophotography from.

Hi SGL community, I am looking to hire a rural/dark sky accommodation somewhere in Exmoor, Cranbourne Chase, or Norfolk (or anywhere else within a few hours' drive of London) for two days of astrophotography. I am getting back into astrophotography after a hiatus, and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations or tips on finding the right venue. I have looked on Airbnb, but I have not yet found anything that seems suitable. Any and all suggestions on areas, type of accommodation, etc. would be most helpful. Thank you!

I posted this question after watching Gary's video. Scared the hell out of me to be honest. I've emailed Juan, so just waiting to hear back 👍

Thank you all!

Afternoon all I'm thinking of astro modifying my Canon 650D. I had a look on the forums but cannot seem to find out where people go to have this done. Any ideas? Did you do it yourself? Thanks

Heres my first ever picture after processing in GIMP. I could only take 29x30sec subs from my Bortle 8 location. I also took flats, bias and darks too. Taken on a CEM25P For some reason, top left of the frame is a lot darker than the right. The stacked image had no differences in lighting and only happened as I tried processing it in GIMP.

This is no way as good as most of the images put on here but this is my first ever picture after processing in GIMP. I could only take 29x30sec subs from my Bortle 8 location. I also took flats, bias and darks too. Taken on a CEM25P For some reason, top left of the frame is a lot darker than the right. The stacked image had no differences in lighting and only happened as I tried processing it in GIMP.

Hi all, A newbie question regarding the position of Polaris. When polar aligning my mount (Ioptron CEM25P), I open an app on my phone called Stargate PA to give me where the position of Polaris should be on the (inbuilt) polar scope reticule. There is also the option of checking on the hand controller of my mount. However I notice that there is a difference of about 30 mins between the two. Last night, my phone app was showing it to be 9:54PM and the hand controller at 9.27PM. Bear in mind that I check the polar position on the hand controller after the GPS locks on. Is it a question of using one over the other? Many thanks M

By way of an update, I used this weekend to sort out my setting up, including taking extra care on polar alignment and balancing. I can now take exposures of around 1 minute without any trailing. Very little I can do about the light pollution though.😫 Thanks again for all the help and advice. 🤝

Thank you all, really appreciate it. Autoguiding/guiding is a bit daunting so I will have to read up a bit more on what guidescope I will need. Software side seems more daunting than the hardware, looks like I will be watching more YouTube videos! My polar alignment routine is a bit rubbish to be honest. I can just about see Polaris from my light polluted area (London) and when I look through the inbuilt polar scope, it's even less visible, and feel that it is a bit of a guess work at times. That's something I have to work on. Tonight promises to be clear skies, so will be setting up early. My mount does have PE correction, so will be re-reading the manual. Good to rule out that the star alignment process has nothing to do with star trails.

Hello everyone I'm new to astrophotography and have noticed that when I take an exposure longer than 15-20 seconds, I start seeing star trails. I live in a Bortle 8 site and would like to take longer exposures but have no idea how to a avoid the trailing issue. Below pic is of Vega which was captured with a 20 sec sub and even here you can see elongated stars. I have a Skywatcher 130PDS, Ioptron CEM25P and a Canon 550d. What should I double check? Is it balancing? Collimation? Polar alignment? I usually do a 2 star alignment as I find it difficult to see lots of bright stars from my location? Should I try a 3 star alignment? Any tips and advice would be greatly received.

Awful news. I noticed the team has posted a letter on twitter with a link for any donations people want to make.

Thank you. Because of limited sky available in the garden, thought I'd test camera settings. Good to know that camera settings arent the main issue. Through an eye piece, the stars look sharp.

Because of the small garden with the high walls I was in, I couldn't see polaris. What I did was use a spirit level to balance and a compass to point the mount to north.

No guiding on this. I manually used the hand controller to point to Vega. Regarding my star alignment, I tried a two star alignment and the target was off by some distance and used the hand controller function to slew to the target star and pressed enter. I was using the supplied 6x30 finderscope that came with the mount. (I think I may have answered my own question)

Hi everyone, I'm new to astronomy and my recently purchased equipment include: SW 130PDS and Ioptron CEM25P GoTo. I used my Olympus EM10 M2 camera. On the first night I was out I just slewed my mount to take pictures of random stars in the sky to test various camera settings. I pointed the scope to Vega and took a number of images at 4 second exposures at 1600 ISO. Even with that short exposure, I still seem to have elongated stars, any longer that 4 seconds it would elongate even more. Can anyone advise what I'm doing wrong? edit - I've uploaded images in JPEG

Have ordered my CEM25P off FLO about an hour after posting that question Grant at FLO helpfully swift in his response. Thanks FLO!

I believe they ordered a large shipment when they heard it was being discontinued.

Just ordered now from FLO.

Hi all, Newbie here. I've been awaiting for a HEQ5 to come into stock for ages now but due to Covid it looks like it will be sometime before they come back into stock. I've missed out of some on the second hand market, which sold in a matter of minutes. I have an option to purchase the Ioptron CEM25P and wondered how it compared to the HEQ5 Pro in terms of performance and ease of use. Essentially, the pros vs cons of each mount. I understand that it's discontinued, but are there any risks associated with purchasing discontinued products, even if bought new? I have a Skywatcher 130PDS. Many thanks

Newbie here Wanted to ask if there are any risks associated with buying a mount that has been discontinued, and if so, what are they? Furthermore, how does the CEM25 compare against the HEQ5? I have an option to purchase the CEM25, was waiting out for the HEQ5 which I cant find anywhere (covid-19). Have missed 2 on the second hand market as it went in a matter of minutes! I have a SW 130PDS.